(Warning, I usually write about network topics that aren't necessarily related to our products, but I’m going to unashamedly promote a new product here because I kill with it everywhere I show it. You should check it out.)

I’ve been a network software geek for a long time and done more than a few new software demos on the road. Still, whenever I show a brand new product to a room I’m a little nervous no matter how much I think it’s cool. I just flew back from Network Field Day 5 in San Jose, where I showed off SolarWinds new Network Topology Mapper and fortunately, it went over great.

Network Topology Mapper (NTM) builds on the strengths and years of expertise with LAN Surveyor, but it’s a clean-sheet design. Its discovery engine makes quick work of integrating OSI Layer 2 & 3 data into a network map, probes with NMP, ICMP, WMI, CDP and VMware, sorts out ports, VLANs and subnets, and of course it spits out Visio and other formats. Best of all it now exports directly to the Orion platform Atlas mapping engine, so you can go direct from discovery, to layout, to live status display via NPM. (Check out Glenn Gray's post for screenshots).

We presented so much content I only had about five minutes to do a live demo of NTM, but the audience was a crowd of network gurus who can net-out the value of a product quickly. Many had experience with LAN Surveyor. Even though I only had time to change some topology links, show the discovery wizard config and change the views around, I saw some telltale smiles and nods from a tough crowd. I’m convinced everyone is really going to like this new network mapping product.